


It Takes a Village to Bake a Cake

by skuldchan



Category: HIStory3 - 圈套 | HIStory3: Trapped
Genre: 5+1 Things, Domestic, Fluff, Humor, Implied Sexual Activity, M/M, Mercenary Househusband Hijinks, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 14:44:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,488
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21199385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skuldchan/pseuds/skuldchan
Summary: The five times that Jack refused to bake a cake for Tang Yi’s birthday, and the one time he finally relented.





	It Takes a Village to Bake a Cake

Jack was closing up his food truck near the end of the lunch hour, when Meng Shao Fei shot out of the police station’s glass doors. 

“What can I do for you, Captain?” Jack asked, as Shao Fei approached, unable to keep the corners of his mouth from pricking up in a sardonic smile. 

“Food,” Shao Fei said, looking harried. “I’ve got a teleconference at the top of the hour.” He checked his watch, as if by staring at his timepiece he could will there to be more minutes in the day between now and his meeting. “Please,” he added, looking up and belatedly realizing he’d just rudely demanded to be fed, instead of ordering politely like a civilized person. 

“All I’ve got left is the japchae bao with carrot kimchi slaw.”

“I’ll take it,” Shao Fei said, sounding like he would have accepted any form of sustenance. 

“Coming right up.”

Jack sighed as he turned around. His cooking was wasted on Meng Shao Fei, who didn’t have the time to appreciate the food he put in his mouth these days, not since being formally appointed the captain of Unit Three six months ago. But Jack fed him all the same, both out of pity and because Zhao Zi was concerned about his health. Jack rummaged about his narrow kitchen to retrieve the ingredients he had just put away. He worked briskly, since Meng Shao Fei had made it abundantly clear he had an appointment to make.

“Oh yeah,” Shao Fei said, as if something had just occurred to him. “I actually have a small favor to ask.” 

Jack glanced up from putting the finishing touches on his bao. Shao Fei looked chagrined, particularly in light of the brusqueness of his initial manner. Jack hadn’t actually minded Shao Fei’s curt order, but he was not going to stop the captain of Unit Three from squirming either. “I’m listening,” he said neutrally.

“I...uh…I was wondering if you might come up with a recipe for a cake that maybe I can make?”

Jack’s eyebrows rose. “A cake?”

“Yeah,” Shao Fei flushed pink, and then his expression darkened slightly, as if he were annoyed with himself for blushing. “It’s Tang Yi’s birthday next week, and I always bring him a homemade cake, instead of a store-bought one.”

“And you want a recipe from me? You know that you can just find one off the internet, right? There are loads.”

“Maybe you can teach me how to bake something fancy?” Shao Fei asked hopefully. “I’ve only got one cake up my sleeve.” 

“That’s what YouTube is for,” Jack replied, handing over Shao Fei’s lunch. 

“I know, I know, but Tang Yi’s got really specific tastes…and he’s been in prison for almost two years. I want to do something special for him, give him a taste of something nice since prison food sucks. Please?”

‘Specific tastes’ and 'something special' did not register in Jack’s book as legitimate reasons for Shao Fei not to do his research online, or as obliging Jack to help him out. 

“You can even put something weird and experimental in it,” Shao Fei continued, in a desperate appeal to Jack’s culinary curiosity. “Like carrots!” He grinned, holding up his bao and pointing at the garnish. 

“You realize that’s an actual cake, right?” said Jack, after a pause.

“What?” 

“Carrot cake. It’s a thing. It’s an actual type of cake.”

“I know that,” Shao Fei scowled defensively. “But they put actual carrots in it?"

"Yes."

"I thought it was just called that because it’s...orange and stuff?”

“There’s carrot in the cake. That’s why it’s orange.”

“Well, we can do a carrot cake, then!” 

Wait, when had this endeavor become a ‘we’?

Before Jack could protest, Meng Shao Fei checked his watch. “Oh crap, I’ve got to run to my meeting now. Thanks, Jack, I owe you one!”

He waved perfunctorily and then dashed off with his bao, ignoring Jack’s protests. 

It was only after the glass doors closed behind him that Jack realized that Meng Shao Fei had forgotten to pay. 

Jack pulled out his phone and LINE’d his boyfriend. 

_I'd like to report your boss for an eat-and-run. And tell him, “NO CAKE!”_

* * *

Zhao Zi gazed up at Jack with a grin, his tongue darting out to lap up a drop of come that had escaped the corner of his mouth. 

Jack’s vision was just starting to recover and his chest still heaved from the force of the orgasm that his boyfriend had just wrung out of him. They were both smiling as Zhao Zi finished cleaning him up with deliberate, sensuous licks. Together, they sank bonelessly into the mattress, sated for the time being. Zhao Zi curled against him, resting his head in the crook of Jack’s shoulder. They might have dozed for a bit, because the next time Jack checked the clock on the nightstand, it didn't feel like forty-five minutes had just passed. Zhao Zi was on his phone, but put it away and tilted his head up to regard Jack when he stirred. 

“Good morning,” Zhao Zi said, with a devilishly cute grin that made Jack want to pin him down to the bed all over again so they could spend the rest of the day having sex. The glint of amusement in Zhao Zi’s gaze signaled that he knew very well the enticing effect he had on Jack.

“Good morning,” Jack replied, deciding to settle for a kiss for now. Zhao Zi craned up eagerly to meet him. 

They were not in a rush to rise, though Jack did have to open the bedroom door once the plaintive yowling of their three cats—incensed that they had been locked out in favor of sex—grew too insistent to bear. Three furry felines pounced on the covers immediately, still complaining as they stomped across Zhao Zi's body. Zhao Zi laughed. Jack had to shoo Li’l Chubs from his pillow, one of her favorite sleeping spots, as he returned under the covers. Zhao Zi’s stomach rumbled, and Jack offered to get up and cook for them, but Zhao Zi wrestled him back down, willing to endure a little hunger so he could spend more time in bed. They cuddled each other, savoring the proximity of their bodies, giving each other gentle caresses and fond looks while they chatted about everything and nothing—the cases Zhao Zi had open, Jack’s co-ed neighborhood association basketball game next week, whether it was time to launder the bedsheets.

“Oh, yeah, I wanted to talk to you about the cake thing," Zhao Zi mentioned, after they had agreed on doing the laundry later.

“What about the cake thing?” Jack asked. 

Zhao Zi wrinkled his nose. "I was thinking...maybe you should be the one who bakes Tang Yi's cake."

"Absolutely not," responded Jack without hesitation.

"I don't think Ah-Fei can pull off a cake as well as you can."

“If he can follow instructions, he can bake.”

“Yeah, but it’s not going to be as good as one of yours.”

Jack conceded the point.

“Please?” Zhao Zi asked, giving Jack a squeeze about his middle.

Jack leveled a mock stern look at his boyfriend. “Did Meng Shao Fei put you up to this?”

“Does it matter?” Zhao Zi replied innocently. “I’m just worried about my best friend, whose welfare is tied to his boyfriend, who’s currently in jail.”

Jack thought that Tang Yi probably should have thought about the consequences when he elected to kidnap Zhou Guan Zhi and kill him in his own home. Jack hardly had the moral standing to lecture somebody else about not committing murder, but at least he had the sense not to involve any personal feelings or go after high-profile targets like police officers, even corrupt ones. 

“I’ll think about it,” said Jack after some consideration. 

Zhao Zi grinned as if he’d just acquiesced. “Thanks. You’re the best.” 

And Jack certainly wasn’t going to say no when Zhao Zi rose and captured his mouth in a long, deep kiss.

* * *

Jack looked up when he heard the familiar rumble of an Audi A5 rounding the corner. It pulled to a stop right in front of his gate, flashing its hazards. He carefully placed the handful of weeds he had uprooted onto the flagstones, and took off his gardening gloves. He rose to greet his unexpected guest. 

“Hi, Jack,” said Zuo Hong Ye, stepping out of her car. She smiled at him, a cursory twitch that only went as far as her lips. She surveyed Zhao Zi’s house with the discerning eye of a real estate developer, perhaps thinking she could turn the block into a shopping center if only she could manage to acquire the investment. “So this is where you live nowadays, huh?”

“It’s small, but it’s ours.” Jack opened the gate, and invited her into the front yard, but no further.

“You mean it’s Zhao Li An’s,” said Hong Ye, with a smirk. 

Jack gave a nonchalant shrug. Whenever they encountered each other, which was rare these days, Hong Ye found any excuse to needle him about his relationship with Zhao Zi. It was a step up from the open hostility she had displayed shortly after Tang Yi’s sentence and imprisonment. It still didn’t sit right with her that Tang Yi was in jail while Jack was free, no matter how many times she had been told that this was because Jack had neither beaten nor shot a member of law enforcement. 

“Speaking of Zhao Li An, is he around?”

“He’s inside, having a nap,” Jack lied. In reality, Zhao Zi was out at the supermarket since they were running low on rice and other staples, but Hong Ye didn’t need to know that.

“When he wakes up, tell him I said ‘hi’.”

“Sure.”

“Anyways, I’ve got a favor to ask.”

Jack regarded Hong Ye with mild surprise. He had never thought of her as the type to beg favors, from him in particular, given the way she had cussed him out when he’d quit Tang Yi’s service two years ago. Traitor, turncoat, and coward had been the tamest things she had called him.

“I heard from Shao Fei that you’re baking Tang Yi’s birthday cake,” Hong Ye said, without waiting for Jack to invite her to continue. 

“I haven’t agreed yet,” Jack replied with a frown.

Hong Ye dismissed his remark, as if his mere consent were of no consequence to her. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

Jack doubted she possessed anything that would be suitably convincing to him. 

“Anyway, there are some things I want you to add to the cake. I’ve gotten my hands on a plastic shiv, a SIM card, and some C4.”

Jack blinked. Had he heard that right? “C4.”

Hong Ye grinned with pride. “Of course.” 

A long silence fell as she continued to smile at him, and Jack stared back at her. She had clearly lost her mind. 

“You do know what C4 is, right?” Hong Ye asked, when Jack failed to respond. 

“I do,” Jack replied finally. “Which is why I am not going to bake plastic explosives into a cake.”

“Oh, not in the cake, Jack. I was thinking you could pass it off as frosting. Or make cute little decorative animals with it. Something creative and innocuous. You’re good at that, right?”

If Hong Ye had in fact gotten her hands on some C4, Jack didn’t think he needed to remind her how illegal it was to be possessing the substance. Wasn’t she supposed to be legitimizing the business?

“No,” Jack said quite firmly.

Hong Ye frowned, disappointed. “Why not?”

“Because if Tang Yi gets caught with C4, he’s going to be in jail for the rest of the decade,” Jack said. He didn’t know why that was the protest he had chosen, instead of pointing out that his boyfriend was a police officer and Tang Yi’s boyfriend was also a police officer, so it was impossible that either of them could look the other way at smuggling explosive contraband into prison. 

Hong Ye sighed, as if much put upon by Jack’s refusal. “Fine. At least put the SIM card and shiv in there.”

“Also illegal.”

Hong Ye sniffed. “And since when has that stopped you?”

Jack smirked. “I’m a reformed citizen now.”

“Your cop boyfriend set you straight, huh?”

“In a manner of speaking.”

Hong Ye snorted. “Yeah, right, you’re as bad as my brother. I’ll be back tomorrow with the goods at two o’clock sharp, so you better be here.”

“Or what?” Jack asked.

Hong Ye smiled sweetly. “Or I’m going to call the police and tell them there’s a bunch of illegal explosives on your doorstep.”

Jack’s expression darkened.

Hong Ye grinned and waved as she made her way back to her car. “See you tomorrow,” she said cheerily. And then she was gone.

* * *

Zhao Zi had gone to back to work in the morning, completely unfazed by Zuo Hong Ye’s visit and request the day before. 

“I don’t think she really has C4,” Zhao Zi had said. “It’s probably just a bunch of play-doh or modeling clay.”

Considering she used to deal in cocaine and methamphetamines, Jack had thought that Zhao Zi was severely underestimating her abilities, but his boyfriend had assured him he’d talk to Ah-Fei and get everything sorted out. Jack had also thought that Zhao Zi was severely overestimating Meng Shao Fei’s abilities.

Jack was on his way back from basketball practice when he saw the blue Audi parked again in front of his house. He cursed silently. It was only one o’clock in the afternoon. She wasn’t supposed to be early!

The car door opened as he cut the engine to his motorcycle. It was Gu Dao Yi who emerged, not Hong Ye.

“Hello, Jack,” said Dao Yi, inclining his head politely, still according Jack the same respect as if he had never quit being Tang Yi’s enforcer.

Jack afforded Dao Yi the same courtesy as he would any other person, which Dao Yi then acknowledged with a barely perceptible nod of his head.

“I hope you’re not here about the cake,” Jack said. He let the other man into his front yard, but again, no further.

Dao Yi managed to look apologetic, which was no small feat given that apologetic was Dao Yi’s default expression. “I am here to inform you that Director Zuo has canceled her meeting with you today.”

“What happened?” Jack asked warily.

Dao Yi smiled faintly at his concern. “Nothing has happened. I have simply...convinced her that her plans are best abandoned.”

Jack sighed with relief. “Good.” At least someone had sense around here. 

“She has strong feelings,” Dao Yi said, the master of understatement. “She misses her brother very much.” He regarded Jack with that liquid gaze of his, appearing simultaneously demure and wise, as if he could read every unspoken thought in Jack’s mind.

Jack had always treated Dao Yi with great caution. He had been one of the most senior of the Xing Tian Group’s members before distancing himself from the syndicate to set up the legitimate side of the organization’s business. His timidity and reserved nature were not an affectation, though all the same he used them to his advantage, a smokescreen for his astute perception and sharp mind. Gu Dao Yi was the only one of the Xing Tian Group’s old guard who Jack found completely unreadable. 

“What about the goods she’d procured?” Jack asked.

“Those of a dubiously legal nature have been anonymously turned into the authorities. Nobody will be able to trace its origins.”

It briefly occurred to Jack to remark that he hoped that Dao Yi hadn’t turned them into Unit Three, but he knew better than to insult the man. Dao Yi was one of the most competent people who had ever been in Tang Guo Dong’s employ, and even with Tang Yi serving his sentence for the past two years behind bars, their real estate development business was flourishing under Zuo Hong Ye and her husband’s leadership.

Jack nodded, satisfied with Dao Yi’s response.

Dao Yi paused. “One more thing,” he added.

“What?”

“I would still like to implore you to bake that cake for Boss Tang’s birthday.” Dao Yi bowed politely. “Though he has already served out the majority of his sentence, the arrival of something homemade from his friends would go along way to reassure him that there remains a place for him in society when he is released.”

“I don’t think he considers me a friend anymore,” said Jack wryly.

“I can’t see a reason why he should have stopped,” Dao Yi replied. “Even through all that’s transpired.”

Jack wasn’t so sure. “Hong Ye hates me,” he said. Which was a perfectly logical reaction, given the willingness he had displayed with Chen Wen Hao to take on the Cambodian operation.

“Yes,” Dao Yi admitted, his brows knitting with consternation, as if apologizing again for Hong Ye’s dislike of Jack. “That is actually precisely why Director Zuo hates you.”

Gu Dao Yi did not wait for an answer before he bid Jack a good day.

* * *

The community center gymnasium echoed with the squeak of rubber-soled sneakers on polished wooden floors. A short, middle-aged woman with the number four safety pinned to her shirt charged right at him, her deft fingers expertly manipulating the bouncing basketball. 

Jack made himself as big as he could, spreading his arms and his legs wide. Four was heading straight for him. She was quick on her feet and had a sudden, mean hook that had gotten the best of Jack too many times already. He took a step forward, intending to intimidate her with his size, drive her back or force her to pass, but Four turned and backed into Jack instead, still dribbling, curling over the ball protectively so he couldn’t even try to knock it away from her. She backed him down the paint instead, three steps and then four, as he desperately tried to leverage his superior height and reach. 

He was too focused on the ball to stop Four when her weight shifted, when she jumped and turned in the air in one smooth motion. She executed an enviably accurate fadeaway, shooting the ball above his head before he could get his hands up. It swooshed into the basket, making nary a sound. The referee blew her whistle, signaling the end of the first half of the game and the beginning of their five-minute break.

Four jogged to her teammates, who greeted her with enthusiastic high-fives and pats on the back. 

“You did good, Jack,” said their team captain, Mrs. Wu, reassuringly, as Jack went to retrieve the ball. Mrs. Wu tried to smile and not look too disappointed by the twenty-point gap between their team and Four’s.

“She’s been running circles around me,” Jack grumbled. There were streaks of white in Four’s ponytail, and she looked close to breaking fifty. 

Mrs. Wu shrugged. “I heard she almost made the national team when she was younger. There’s nothing we can do against players of that kind of caliber. Come on, let’s go get a drink.”

Jack exchanged high fives and words of encouragement with the rest of his team, even though it was likely they were going to get the drubbing of a lifetime in this match up. As Jack made his way back to the bench, which was six metal folding chairs arranged at the sideline, he noticed a familiar face amongst the spectators who had gathered. That hadn’t been hard, there were only five people watching a community basketball game at eleven o’clock in the morning on a Tuesday. He assumed the four ladies waving at him were Mrs. Wu’s friends, and the one man present among them—that was his friend, he grudgingly supposed. 

“Where are you going?” Mrs. Wu asked after Jack finished towelling the sweat off his face. 

“I gotta talk to my buddy, I’ll be right back!” Jack called over his shoulder. 

Said friend beckoned, and led him to a corner of the gymnasium so they could have a private chat.

“Nick, what you doing here?” Jack hissed, once he felt they were out of earshot. He was leaning close to his old Interpol handler so their voices wouldn’t echo, but it was closer than he would have liked. They looked suspicious as hell. Jack hoped his team didn’t think he was cheating on Zhao Zi or something.

Nick grinned at him, shoving his hands in his pockets with smug, nonchalant ease. “Watching you get massacred at basketball. You look good in white, by the way.” Nick cocked an eyebrow. “I have the feeling your team chose that as their color on purpose.” 

“I don’t have time for this,” Jack muttered and started to go, but Nick grabbed his arm and reeled him back. 

“Seriously, though, I need you to do something for me.”

Jack frowned. He and Nick hadn’t had much contact in the two years since he’d quit freelancing. In the beginning, most of their encounters involved Nick begging him to come back, but eventually even Interpol understood that no meant no and stopped harassing him. Was this some new ploy on Nick’s part?

“I heard you’re baking a cake,” Nick continued. 

“You heard wrong,” said Jack sourly, wondering where on earth Nick could have gotten that information from. But then again, Interpol was still working with Unit Three on the occasional case here and there. He wouldn’t put it past Meng Shao Fei, or worse, Zhao Zi, to accidentally let it slip. 

“I need you to plant a bug in the cake.”

Jack frowned. “What?”

“I want you to bug Tang Yi’s cake.”

Jack snorted. “So you can spy on his intestines? See if he poops regularly?”

Nick shrugged. “Whatever works, man.” 

Jack’s lips pressed into a thin line. “You don’t trust him,” he stated flatly. “You’re not buying the whole legitimization thing.”

Nick sucked in a breath. “Let’s just say that you and I both know there’s a thin line between legitimization and money laundering.”

“Meng Shao Fei will keep Tang Yi honest.”

“Sure, the same way he kept Tang Yi honest last time by throwing himself in front of the barrel of a gun? The man only has so many lives, you know.”

“I know Tang Yi, and he’s not worth bugging,” Jack said firmly.

Nick wrinkled his nose. “That’s not what the higher ups think. This could have been an elaborate plan to get into jail and widen his criminal network there.”

“Or he’s actually repentant, and willing to serve time for his crimes.”

“I know for certain that the charges he was brought in on aren’t even scratching the surface of his crimes,” Nick said, looking meaningfully at Jack. 

Jack inhaled and then breathed out slowly. His actions when undercover were off limits, Nick should know that. Jack was of half a mind to just storm off, but he smirked at Nick instead. “Whatever you have on me isn’t going to change my mind. Why don’t you just put a tiny camera in a bar of soap or something?”

Nick’s sardonic smile said, ‘nice try.’ But in one last-ditch attempt, because Jack’s team was already gathering at the edge of the court and waving at him, Nick said, “Hey, I’ll teach you the secret to winning the second half of the game if you agree to the bug.” 

Jack scoffed. “Let me guess, it’s ‘don’t suck at basketball?’”

“Damn.”

Jack placed a hand on Nick’s shoulder. “It was nice seeing you.” And then he went to rejoin his team.

* * *

“Shao Fei’s invited us to his place tonight, after work. I’m going to help him, you know,” Zhao Zi said hesitantly, over their breakfast of scallion pancakes, pickled bamboo shoots, and congee. He watched Jack closely to gauge his reaction. ‘Because It’s Tang Yi’s birthday tomorrow,’ hung in the air between them, unspoken. 

“Do you want me to go with you?” Jack asked, conscious of the fact that he hadn’t given his boyfriend an answer yet about the cake thing.

Zhao Zi nodded, with a shy, hopeful smile. 

After all the other entreaties he had endured in the past few days, it was only natural that was his own boyfriend who was his undoing. How could Jack say no to that face? “Okay.”

Zhao Zi broke into a bright, sunny grin. “I knew you’d come around.”

Jack smiled wryly. He had yet to refuse any of Zhao Zi’s requests in earnest.

They coordinated by text for the rest of the day for the list of supplies and the requisite kitchenware. Jack even made a trip down to the import store to find some brown sugar and the cream cheese he needed for the frosting. 

The sun was just beginning to set when Jack pulled up to the entrance of Tang Yi—no, Meng Shao Fei’s house. The gates swung open when he rang, and he pulled his motorcycle through, leaving it parked beside Shao Fei’s Corolla and Hong Ye’s blue Audi.

Zhao Zi swung open the door to greet him with a hug and a surprisingly deep kiss that Jack leaned into. 

He looked around curiously as Zhao Zi led him deeper inside the house. He hadn’t set foot in here since the night he left, packing all of his belongings into his one duffel bag and never looking back. He hadn’t expected to ever be allowed back in, but life sometimes took strange turns. 

The house felt different than when Jack had last seen it, less sterile, warmer. The books on the shelves were new—Shao Fei had terrible taste in mystery novels—and the rug was stained with what looked like drops of spilt coffee.

The kitchen, once incredibly clean and organized, looked like a teenager with a dangerously short attention span had rearranged it. There were two or three conflicting organizational schemes going on, so Jack supposed that he would have to rely on Shao Fei to know exactly where everything was amongst the chaos. 

Hong Ye regarded him coolly as he entered, swirling a half-full glass of white wine. But she managed to put their differences aside, giving him an approximation of a friendly smile that was good enough for Jack. Gu Dao Yi nodded by way of greeting. 

“Thanks for coming, Jack,” Meng Shao Fei said. He had already put on his apron and laid out mixing bowls of varying sizes on the countertop. “I really appreciate it.”

“No trouble,” Jack replied, setting the supplies he’d brought atop the kitchen island—a handheld whisk, a couple of cake tins, several different sizes of silicon spatulas. Everyone gathered around, pulling up the recipe Jack had sent earlier on their phones, and rolled up their sleeves. “Let’s get started.”

**Author's Note:**

> A million thanks again to the lovely [Naye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/naye) for the beta read. She did manage to catch an important error, so I am very grateful for her time. 
> 
> Eagle-eyed readers will notice that this does indeed take place in the same continuity as my series, _[The Divine Art of the Househusband](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1444276)._ Jack’s food truck, Baos for my Babe, is first referenced in _[The Right to Thursdays](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20554640)._ Jack and Zhao Zi's cats appear first in _[Unplanned Parenthood](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20474510)_, and Nick, Jack’s former Interpol handler, is first introduced in _[Trash Day](https://archiveofourown.org/works/20154643)._


End file.
